About Nicole

I grew up in the hills of East San Diego to parents who both bred, trained and managed their own facility with many top western performance horses which excelled in trail, pleasure and reining and overall great quality and training. We did a little of everything on each horse from jumping, going to the shows then take them on trails in the nearby mountains for some fun. We worked on solid horsemanship where they were safe and confident where ever we took them. In this way, I feel like we had less accidents and sounder horses. At the age of 7, my mom moved her training business from our ranch to the local stables, Willow Glen. This ranch had other types of riding, and that is when I saw the sport dressage and immediately fell in love with the sport. I took my paint mare which I had competed western and started pointing her down centerlines at the local dressage shows. My parents purchased a local feed store and pretty soon, I was learning all the different typed of hay and grains, got to go to many big horse events and got to get behind the scenes with many great horses and riders.

Around 12, I joined the local Rainbow Pony Club and learned how to jump, both stadium and cross country. It was getting pretty obvious I was getting into this english riding and decided my quarter horses just didn't have the athleticism as I needed and decided to get an off the track thoroughbred. With a lot of hurdles and difficulties, I found my way working with such an athletic horse. I took Masterpiece to my C3 in Pony Club, training eventing, and then decided to focus and specializing in Dressage. I became a woking student for Steffen Peters at the time he was training for the '96 Olympics. Being part of his barn taught me how to train at such a high level and yet still letting his horses be horses. I trained Masterpiece to PSG level and tried out for the Junior Olympics. Even though I didn't make the team the 1st year, I got a spot working with the great US Coach Conrad Schumacher who to this day, is my trusted coach I turn to when I need guidance. In his system, He taught me a systematic use of exercises and correct use of riders aids, letting the horse becoming supple and ridable, both their mind and body to build muscle and correct muscle memory and reactions. Working with Conrad really helped me find my way and earned 3 Team golds, individual silver, individual bronze, '96-'99. After a very successful Young riders years I moved Masterpiece to the Grand Prix and in 2000 did the Olympic trials and got such an appreciation of concentration at that level and focus.

I had a small training barn where I took local students in my teenage years and then in 2000, at the age of 22, I moved I took the job to start and manage a barn at Four Winds Farm in Woodside, CA. I quickly grew a 20 horse training barn. My 1st training horse I took in was the 4yo stallion Rubino Bellissimo, who every year won top honors at state championships. In 2004, the pair placed 3rd at the US Nationals and the following year competed in Grand Prix and trained and competed wit the US High performance team. In 2004, I started at new location at the Portola Valley Training Center where I maintained a training barn of about 20 horses. As I always had super upcoming horses showing international qualities, I continued to get to train with the high performance team with great trainers and rider meetings to discuss top care and training as I also saw to the training of the horses in full training with happy clients. I maintained a 15 yo business of bringing many winning horses and riders to many state and national championships.

In July of 2023, I decided to relocate to Hazy Meadow in the beautiful El Monte Valley to focus on more training more for pleasure of bringing the feel of connection and correct basics and less competition focused. Still using the dressage training pyramid as proven to seeing improvement thru body and mind. Seeing the benefit of how this system improves all types of horses, to bring a better understanding of communication and reliability for better muscles and topline. Introducing students to the sport of Working Equitation that uses dressage, but includes obstacles and patterns to make more user friendly of all types of horse and rider combinations. Having wonderful schoolmaster type horses of all varieties and disciplines, I'm also able to offer a wonderful kids program where giving each kid a personalized program to build correct foundation of correct equitation and use of aids for safety and ability to advance to higher levels.